


Balance

by RoseLaflesh



Series: Learning to Dance [3]
Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Amidot, F/F, Fights, First Date, Fusion, Ice Skating, ish
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-08
Updated: 2016-09-11
Packaged: 2018-08-13 20:28:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,167
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7985173
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RoseLaflesh/pseuds/RoseLaflesh
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>To make Steven feel better about a warm winter, Garnet has made a skating rink, so Steven decides it should be a skating party with all the Gems, including Lapis and Peridot. However, Peridot can't ice skate, and Amethyst's teach style doesn't help.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Not my Party, but I'll Pout Anway

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, so, while technically this is still a short story and probably shouldn't be in chapters, I'm too sleepy to finish the last bit, and I'm not sure when I'll next have internet, so I'm posting what I have now. With the way things are going, I'm going to guess there will be two more chapters after this.

Steven stared out the window and sighed. Winter was almost over but there hadn’t been a single day that was cold enough to freeze ice for the skating rink they’d make on the beach each year. However, this winter had been unusually warm. So warm that Steven didn’t look unusual in his favorite flip flops.

“What’s wrong?” Pearl asked, looking up from a bowl of cookie dough.

“We never got to go skating this year.”

“It has been a mild winter,” Pearl agreed.

“It just feels like something’s missing without ice. Like winter didn’t really happen.”

“There was some ice on the deck this morning,” Amethyst said.

“That was frost,” Steven groaned, “That doesn’t count, especially if it’s gone before noon.”

“I had a feeling you’d complain about this,” Garnet said, putting her book down.

“By feeling, do you mean future vision,” Steven asked.

“Yes.” Garnet adjusted her glasses.

“It sounds like you have something ready,” Pearl said with a knowing smile.

A sly grin cracked on Garnet’s face. “Yes.”

Garnet led everyone to the warp pad, not saying anything the entire way there, despite Steven’s attempts to grill her. A cold wind blew when they arrived. They were somewhere up North. Steven had only been here a handful of times, but just a few feet from the warp was something he knew was new. A large, perfectly smooth ice rink shined like a mirror. Logs of various sizes lined the rink.

“Oh, wow!” Steven shouted, jumping onto the ice and sliding half way before slipping, losing a sandal.

“I think it’d be more fun with these.” Garnet pulled Steven’s winter jacket and a pair of skates from behind one of the logs.

Steven excitedly put everything on and began skating around. The rest of the gems joined him. Amethyst shifted herself some hockey skates while Garnet and Pearl contented themselves by using their usual feet. Pearl had some fun performing some impressive figure skating moves. After a few minutes of skating around, Steven paused to think for a bit.

“You know who I think would really enjoy this too? Peridot and Lapis. Let’s go invite them.” 

Steven began to skate to the edge of the rink but Amethyst skated in front of him, shifting back to her usual form. “How about I get them. You keep having fun.”

“Is this because Peridot is now your girlfriend,” Steven teased.

“Yes,” Amethyst said, half embarrassed.

“Girlfriend!” Pearl exclaimed.

Garnet smiled, giving Amethyst a thumbs up.

“Whatever. I’ll be right back.” Amethyst bolted to the warp pad.

“Wow, I knew they were trying to fuse, but who knew their relationship was like that.” A light blush dusted Pearl’s cheeks in blue.

“I knew it would happen,” Garnet said.

“Future vision?” Steven asked.

“No. It was just very obvious.” Garnet went back to skating.

Back at the barn, Peridot was relaxing in the pool on the tube, enjoying the heat of the sun. Lapis was enjoying the lazy day in much the same way. Neither of them noticed Amethyst approach.

“Hey,” Amethyst said.

“Amethyst!” Peridot jumped out of the tube and tried to land on the nearest edge but fell just a hair short and slipped back into the water. She managed to pull herself back onto land and launched herself into a tackling hug. “Hi.”

Amethyst squeezed her back, nuzzling the side of her face. “How’s it going?”

“Alright,” Peridot sat up, “a little boring, but I’ve begun working on this latest morp that I know you’ll love.”

“Great. Say, how would you and Lapis like to go ice skating?”

“Like a date?”

“Well, I guess so. Garnet made this skating rink for Steven, and we’d figure that you guys would like to join in too. So I guess we can make it a date.”

“That sounds great.” Peridot gave Amethyst another hug. “Lapis, you’re coming too, right?”

Lapis shrugged. “I guess so.”

“Great, let’s go.” Peridot got off of Amethyst to let her up and all three of them took the warp back to the skating rink.

“Hey, you’re back!” Steven greeted. “While you were gone, Garnet had gone back to get some of my old skates for you guys to use.”

“Thank you, but that’s not necessary,” Lapis said, pulling some water from the snow and forming some skates.

“Well, okay then, at least Peridot can use them,” Steven said.

“Yes,” Peridot said as she accepted the skates, “How do I use them?”

“You put them on your feet, like this.” Steven lifted up a foot quickly before having to set it back down to regain his balance.

“Here, I’ll help,” Amethyst said, “Sit on that log and I’ll put them on for you.”

Peridot sat down and held up her left foot to allow Amethyst to place the skate on. The skate was a little bit tight, but they managed to get her foot in. Amethyst laced up the skate, doing her best to make sure it wasn’t too tight. Peridot knew she should be studying how skates were applied, but she couldn’t take her eyes off of Amethyst.

“Why don’t you two get a room,” Garnet joked as she slid by.

“Why don’t you shut up!” Amethyst said. A deep purple blush set itself onto her cheeks and didn’t fade until she had finished lacing up Peridot’s skates. “There, how do they feel?”

“A little snug.”

“But not too tight, right?”

“No. It’s fine.”

“Good.” Amethyst relaxed and smiled. “Come on.” Amethyst held out her hand as she shifted into a pair of skates and skated a foot away from the logs.

“So I just shuffle my feet to make these work?” Peridot asked as she stepped onto the ice. The moment her weight was on the skates, her feet slipped out from underneath her and she landed on her back.

“Peridot, are you alright!” Steven asked, hurrying over as quickly as possible.

“I’m fine,” Peridot grumbled, her ego having taken a bigger bruise than she expected.

Amethyst skated beside Peridot and helped her onto her feet, not letting go. “Don’t worry, you’ll get the hang of it.”

“What are the point of these things?” Peridot gestured to her skates. “Who thought, ‘look at this slick surface. It sure is hard to walk on. I know, let's balance on thin pieces of metal attached to the bottoms of our shoes so that there’s even less friction between us and the ground!’?” Peridot was just about screaming the last part of her rant.

“But skating is fun,” Steven said as he slid by.

“I fail to see what’s fun about it.”

Amethyst barely suppressed a laugh. “That’s because you’re not skating. Hold onto me and I’ll show you.” Amethyst put an arm around Peridot and grabbed hold of both of her hands. “We’ll take this slowly, just move your feet like I do.”

Amethyst kicked back her left foot and they begun to slide forwards. Peridot mimicked and they moved a little further again. Amethyst then pushed back with her right foot, Peridot did the same, and soon they slowly moved down the rink. Once they got a good rhythm down, they began to pick up the pace. Feet moving in sync.

Peridot let out a little laugh. “You’re right, this is fun.”

“Think you’re ready to try a little on your own?”

“No, let’s stay like this for a little longer.”

“Okay, but it’s much more fun when you’re going as fast as you can, like this.” 

Amethyst began to race down the rink, turning sharply before she hit the end and zooming towards the other end.

Peridot tried to dig her feet down to slow the two, but she didn’t have the strength to stop Amethyst, nor did her skates offer the slightest bit of friction. There was nothing she could do but shout, "Stop!"

Hearing Peridot ask to stop, Amethyst turned sideways just before reaching the other end of the rink. A cloud of snow flew off the ice from the bite of Amethyst’s skates, and Peridot flew into Amethyst, unable to stop herself. The momentum threw both gems over the log and into a snow drift.

“Ow,” Peridot groaned.

“Sorry about that,” Amethyst said, “Are you alright?”

“I told you I wanted to keep going slow and steady together.”

“No, you said that you weren’t ready to skate alone.”

“So that means I’m ready to fly across the ice like a gem retrieval ship?” 

“I was holding onto you. If you hadn’t told me to stop, we'd have been fine.”

“Of course I told you to stop. We were having fun, and then you had to take it too far.”

“It’s not like you said you wanted to go slow.”

“I didn’t say I wanted to go fast either. I thought that it was obvious that we need to keep it slow. YOU were the one who said that we were starting slow.”

“Stop fighting,” Steven cried.

“We did start slow, and you were getting the hang of it, so I thought we could pick up the pace.”

“Well it clearly wasn’t a good idea. Why don’t you think things through you clod?”

Amethyst’s face darkened. “Don’t call me a clod.”

“Why? You’re the gem who thought it was a good idea to try and teach me to ice skate by racing around while dragging me along. Did you even notice that you were practically dragging me.”

“Your skates were on the ice.”

“That was me trying to stop, but these stupid things are worthless.” Peridot tried to yank the skate off, but it was so well laced that it wasn’t budging. She eventually let out a frustrated scream and flopped onto the ground, giving up.

“Do you want me to take those off for you?” Amethyst asked, having calmed down slightly.

“No. Just leave me alone. Have fun with your skating. I’ll be here.”

“Alright. If you want to try skating again, just let me know. I promise that I’ll go slow next time.”

Peridot grunted in response.

“I’m sorry,” Amethyst said, “You’re not too mad, are you?”

“I’m fine. I just lost my interest in skating. Go have your fun.”

“Okay,” Amethyst said, stepping back onto the ice.


	2. Falling Flat

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I got this part done faster than I thought, and I found an internet connection, so it's all good. I've got a last half I'm still working on. It just needs a little polishing up. I'll get it up when I can.

Peridot pouted in the snow drift while the others continued skating. Even Lapis, who usually prefered to sulk in the presence of anyone other than Steven had lightened up and partook in a few games. Still, as the others were having fun, Steven couldn’t help but notice Peridot was getting sadder and sadder.

Steven turned to the others. “We should really come up with a way Peridot can have fun too.”

“So we should stop skating?” Lapis asked.

“Maybe, if we can’t think of a way to include Peridot on the ice as well.”

“Well I don’t see how unless there’s a way to still have fun while staying in place,” Amethyst said.

As Steven thought it over, he came up with an idea. “How about hockey!”

“Hockey?” Pearl said.

“Yeah! It needs even teams, we have an even number of people, and one of the positions is goaly, so Peridot doesn’t even have to skate, she just needs to guard the net.”

“But we don’t have a net. We don’t even have a puck or hockey sticks,” Pearl pointed out.

“We do now,” Garnet said, breaking off some curved branches.

“And we could find a rock to use as a puck,” Steven suggested, “And the ends of the rink could be the goal.”

“I don’t know. Hockey is such a rough sport. I think I’d rather sit it out,” Pearl said.

“That’s okay, maybe you could referee with Garnet. You’re good with making sure everyone follows the rules.”

“Actually, I’d rather sit this out too. Sports aren’t exactly my thing,” Lapis said.

“That’s alright. You can referee with Pearl.”

“Actually, I think I’ll just watch and cheer you on.”

Steven looked a little disappointed, but he pushed that aside as quickly as possible. “Okay, that’s fine too. So it will be two on two. Me and Garnet vs. Amethyst and Peridot.”

“That’s assuming that Peridot even wants to play.” Amethyst crossed her arms, looking at Peridot, who was entertaining herself by poking holes in the snow.

“We won’t know until we ask. Come on.” Steven skated down to Peridot with a big grin on his face. “Hey, Peridot, we were going to start a game of hockey, do you want to join in?”

“I heard you talking from the other side of the rink. I know you’re just trying to get me to skate again.”

“No, you really don’t have to skate. In fact, I’ll take the skates off if you want,” Steven offered. “You don’t even need to know the rules of the game. All you have to do is play goaly, which means you stand on one side of the rink and make sure the puck doesn’t get past you.”

“Okay, that sounds fair,” Peridot agreed, “But first take these things off.” She lifted up her foot to gesture at the skate.

Steven took one off while Amethyst took off the other. Freed from her skates, Peridot took a big, confident step over the log barrier onto the ice, and immediately fell flat on her face.

Steven cringed in sympathy. “Are you alright?”

Peridot pushed herself up and slipped again. “No, I’m not alright. I’ve had it with this clodding ice. I’m going home.” Peridot crawled off the ice and didn’t stand up until she was on snow.

“Wait, don’t go,” Amethyst said, standing in front of her. “I don’t want things to end on this note.”

“I don’t see the point in staying. There’s nothing to do here but skate.”

“That’s not true,” Steven said, “We don’t have to skate. We could…” He looks around to find some inspiration. “Make snow men.” He reaches down to make a snow ball, but the snow is dry and powdery and crumbles. “Okay, maybe snow forts… no, that needs wetter snow as well.”

“Maybe this is a good time to try fusion again,” Garnet suggested.

“What!” Peridot and Amethyst gasped at once.

“Amethyst is excellent at skating, so there’s a fifty fifty chance that your fusion would inherit some of those skills.”

“Oh come on, Garnet, there’s no need to waste fusion for something as frivolous as ice skating,” Pearl said.

“It’s not a waste if it’s between two gems who care about each other. Amethyst, you care about Peridot, right?”

“Well, yeah.”

“Peridot, do you care about Amethyst?”

“Of course. She’s my favorite gem.”

“Aw, thanks,” Amethyst said.

“Then I say now is the perfect time to try fusing again.”

“But it didn’t work last time,” Peridot said.

“There’s no harm in trying,” Steven offered, trying to hide the big, excited grin on his face.

Amethyst sighed. “Well, Percy, it’s up to you.”

“Wait, why am I Percy? I think I’m more of a Pierre.”

“Come on, you’re totally a Percy,” Amethyst gave Peridot a playful punch on the arm, “and both your names start with P.”

“But Pierre starts with P as well.”

“True, but Percy is the pretty one between the two of them.”

“You really think I’m pretty.” Peridot blushed.

“Do you want to fuse or not?”

“Yes,” Peridot leaped into Amethyst’s arms.

Amethyst hugged her close and then placed her hands on Peridot’s waist. “Are you ready?”

“I was made ready.” Peridot wrapped her arms around Amethyst’s neck.

Barely two steps into the dance they glowed and merged into one, beautiful, tall gem. She had a big pile of white hair that started at a point on the top of her head and went straight down with half of it in front of her face. Dark green skin was freckled with bright purple all along her face, shoulders and arms. Rimless green sunglasses sat on her bottom two eyes and half covered the top two. Tattered black leggings wrapped around her wide hips while an almost dress like tank top hung loosely over her waist, making an already large bust look larger. 

“Wow, I’m me,” The new gem said, “Whoever that is.” She stretched two slender arms in the air, enjoying the moment.

“Wow.” Steven stared at the new fusion in awe.

“How do you feel?” Garnet asked.

“I feel,” The fusion paused to think for a while, “Great. Much better than last time now that there are no tables in the way.”

“But you feel more balanced now?” 

“Of course. I’m as balanced as can be. No one can knock me down. Now let’s get skating.”

“Do you think you can?” Steven asked.

“Well, there’s only one way to find out,” Pearl said.

“Take it as slowly as you need to,” Garnet advised.

“Wow, you two actually fused,” Lapis said as she landed beside Steven.

“Yeah, isn’t it cool,” Steven said.

“I guess you really like each other, don’t you,” Lapis asked.

“Well, yeah, I do think that… uh,” She paused to think. “You know, I forgot what I was going to say there.” She let out a forced laugh.

“So what’s you’re name?” Steven asked.

“My name?” 

“Yeah, what are you?”

“I’m awesome. You can just call me awesome.”

“Okay, Awesome!” Steven gave her a thumbs up.

“That’s not a name. Come on, I’m sure we can figure out your real name,” Pearl said.

Garnet raised a hand to silence Pearl. “Her name is up to her.” 

“Yeah, Pearl, it’s my name, but if you really want, I guess you can call me… Fluorite.”

“Okay, Fluorite Awesome,” Steven said, grabbing her hand, “Let’s go skating.”

“Right, skating. That thing I totally want to do because I’m so awesome at it.”

“Are you sure?” Garnet asked.

“Of course. After all, you said there was a fifty fifty chance that I will skate as well as Amethyst. With those odds, how can I lose?”

As they reached the skating rink, Steven turned to look up at Fluorite. “Can you shift skates? Because I know Amethyst can, but Peridot can’t, and I don’t think I have any skates that fit you.”

“Well of course I can shift skates. What do you take me for?”

“Okay!” Steven said happily. He jumped onto the ice and began skating away.

“Okay,” Fluorite said quietly to herself, “You know how to do this. Just relax and let yourself feel the skates… is it really that easy anymore?”

“Fluorite, is everything okay?”

“Oh, yeah, I’m fine. Just enjoying the moment. No need to wait on my account.”

“Okay,” Steven said, much less convinced this time.

“Just feel the skates,” She repeated to herself, this time managing to get her feet into the shape of an upside down triangular prism, “Close enough.”

She jumped onto the ice, nearly losing balance a few times but slowly finding a rhythm as she skated over to Steven. 

He looks down at her feet and cocks his head to the side. “I don’t think those are skates.”

“You do skates your way, and I’ll do them mine,” Fluorite said. Her feet wobbled as she struggled to keep balance on such a narrow point, but managed to keep up right, even if her path was crooked, “Now come on, let’s play some hockey. I’m ready to show Garnet what a real fusion is capable of.” 

Fluorite punched her hand to emphasize her point, but the motion threw her off balance, and she landed flat on the ice, sliding several feet along the rink. She began to glow as the fusion destabalized, but Peridot and Amethyst pulled back together and Fluorite solidified again, although her feet had flattened back to their usual shape. She eventually came to a stop at the other end of the rink. Everyone ran over to check up on her.

“Are you alright?” Steven asked.

“Just fine. I guess I need to work a little on my balance.”

“Or your shape shifting,” Garnet said.

“I could always give you some pointers. I have excellent balance,” Pearl boasted.

“Thank you, but that’s not necessary.” Fluorite tried to stand again, but her feet slipped from underneath her and she toppled over the log like Peridot had earlier. This time she was not able to keep together. Peridot and Amethyst landed side by side in the snow.


	3. Settling down

“That’s it, I hate ice!” Peridot screamed, punching the snow as she stood up.

Amethyst just groaned.

“I’m going back to the barn. Amethyst, are you coming with me?”

“Yeah, I think I’ve had enough of ice and snow as well.”

“Lapis?” Peridot asked.

“I think I’ll hang out with Steven for a while. Seeing how close you two are now, I’d hate to be a third wheel.”

“Okay. I’ll see you later then. Ready, Amethyst?”

“Yeah. See you guys later.” Amethyst got up and gave everyone a little wave.

When they got back to the barn, Amethyst expected Peridot to be full of energy, but she seemed to be thinking about something. They made a bit of small talk, but there was something clearly not being said.

“If you just watch a few more episodes of Camp Pining Hearts, you’ll see that I’m totally a Pierre,” Peridot insisted.

“Alright, but you have to watch a few more episodes of Little Butler with me.”

“But that show is horrible. It’s so old and forgotten that there’s not even a DVD release for it. All you have are a few official VHS tapes and some recorded episodes.”

“That’s because it misunderstood genius. Any old person can like a popular show, but it takes a true fan to love a show that’s forgotten.”

“Love a show, huh?”

“Yeah,” Amethyst agreed.

“Amethyst, I have a question.”

“Is it, ‘will I bring Little Butler episodes to watch’, because the answer is yes.”

“Why do you think Fluorite had trouble saying that we love each other.”

Amethyst’s voice caught in her throat, choking her.

“I remember being her, and feeling that we both agreed on how we felt about each other, but when she went to say it, she couldn’t. I don’t understand why. She seemed confident in most of what she did, mostly, but the words disappeared when she tried to say it.”

“Sometimes it’s hard for people to say it. I mean, there’s a lot of weight and pain behind those words.”

“I love you, Amethyst.”

Amethyst froze up.

“It wasn’t that hard to say. I love you. Now you try it.”

“I… I… I think I need to check up on Steven.” Amethyst turned to walk out of the barn without looking at Peridot. She couldn’t. She could already imagine the look on her face, she didn’t need to see it for real.

“Do you?”

Amethyst froze up again. They stood in silence for moments that felt far too long as Amethyst struggled to find words she could say. 

“Why?” Peridot’s voice sounded broken.

“You know how I feel. Why should I have to say it?” She turned to look at Peridot and instantly regretted it. The sadness in her voice was nothing like the sorrow that filled her eyes. Amethyst wished she was punched in the gut. At least that would hurt less.

“Do I?” Peridot cried. “I don’t know much about fusion. How do I know those weren’t my own feelings reflected back at me? What’s so horrible about saying I love you?”

“Because everyone who says it is an idiot who ends up hurt. Look at you, you said it and look at how much it hurts.”

“So I’m an idiot, is that it?”

“No, no, that’s not what I meant at all.”

“Well that’s what you said. All I have to work with is what you say. I can only know what you say.”

“Look it’s… it’s way too early in this relationship. I mean, it’s been barely a week since we first fused. This is way too soon for ‘I love you’s.”

“I thought that the fact we agreed we’re now dating meant that we were in love.”

“If we rush things, things might go bad.”

“How much worse can they possibly get?”

“I don’t know, just… I really feel it. I do, and I promise I’ll say it when I’m ready.”

“Really?”

“Yeah.” Amethyst walked up to Peridot and wrapped her in a big hug, kissing her softly on the lips.

“This is not a good day,” Peridot whined.

“I know."

"And it's an even worse date."

"The date's not over until we say goodnight. I’ll stay here as long as you want.”

“Don’t you have to check on Steven?”

“Nah, he’s a big boy. Besides, Pearl, Garnet and Lapis are there. I’ll stay by you.”

“Promise?”

“For as long as it takes.”

Peridot nodded into Amethyst’s shoulder, drying off her face. “Will you watch Pining Hearts with me?”

“Yeah.”

“Will you admit it’s better than Little Butler?”

“Okay, now you’re an idiot.” 

They had a bit of a chuckle and settled in for a quiet evening.


End file.
